Service Fees
The Inadequacy of One
Will I calculate service costs based on a single unit of service? Yes, but I don’t like to. It’s often hard to make the case for including the estimated units of service in a “Fee Study” (Study) as it increases our costs and the customer is trying to obtain a Study at the lowest possible [...]
The more things change the more they stay the same
We are living in a time of change. Redevelopment Agencies in their current form have disappeared. No one knows what the State budget will look like until the voters weigh in on temporary tax increases in the fall. Everyone is still trying to figure out what their new normal is for Sales and Property taxes. [...]
Rethinking Animal Control
When our company started doing cost of services studies in the early 1980’s, it was routinely suggested that 50% of animal control costs could be recovered from dog licenses. The other 50% was looked at as a public safety expense to protect the community from rabies. In other words, all residents of the community would [...]
Are “Crash Taxes” for You?
As cities look farther and deeper for additional revenue, some cities have started charging for emergency response to accident scenes. Enough cities have adopted these fees that the media has gotten a hold of the story and dubbed them “Crash Taxes.” Catchy. And, of course, inaccurate, since these are fees and not taxes. But the [...]
Capitalism and Local Government
One of the many nice features of our capitalist system is the ability to vote with our dollars to get the products that we want in the market place. When we go into a grocery store, we have many choices in the products that we buy and we can buy one item or many. The [...]
Proposition 26 – Voter Approval Requirement for Local Regulatory Fees
On the California ballot this fall is Proposition 26, which proposes to redefine many current fees at the statewide and local level as taxes and therefore require a majority vote of the local voters to implement those local fees. While this is a continuation of the budget battles at the state level, it is the [...]
Achieving the Potential of GASB 34
Statement 34 was adopted with much fanfare by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) in June of 1999. By the end of 2004, more than 84,000 governmental units were required to include the (estimated) historical cost of infrastructure in their comprehensive annual financial reports. This statement had been circulating in various forms almost since the [...]
What Can Fire Fighters Teach Police Officers?
One of the advantages of seniority is that you can see how local government has changed over the years. One of the dramatic changes that I have witnessed in many California cities is the transition of the fire profession from the one-horse function of suppression to the full-team of fire/life safety. Many fire departments now [...]
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